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posted by martyb on Thursday August 18 2016, @11:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the nano-Ted-Stevens dept.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-08/mu-mr081616.php

Researchers at McMaster University have [developed] a new way to purify carbon nanotubes - the smaller, nimbler semiconductors that are expected to replace silicon within computer chips and a wide array of electronics. "Once we have a reliable source of pure nanotubes that are not very expensive, a lot can happen very quickly," says Alex Adronov, a professor of Chemistry at McMaster whose research team has developed a new and potentially cost-efficient way to purify carbon nanotubes.

[...] While previous researchers had created polymers that could allow semiconducting carbon nanotubes to be dissolved and washed away, leaving metallic nanotubes behind, there was no such process for doing the opposite: dispersing the metallic nanotubes and leaving behind the semiconducting structures. Now, Adronov's research group has managed to reverse the electronic characteristics of a polymer known to disperse semiconducting nanotubes - while leaving the rest of the polymer's structure intact. By so doing, they have reversed the process, leaving the semiconducting nanotubes behind while making it possible to disperse the metallic nanotubes.

Influence of Polymer Electronics on Selective Dispersion of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (DOI: 10.1002/chem.201603553)


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 18 2016, @04:43PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 18 2016, @04:43PM (#389643)

    i hope these carbon nano tube geniuses have the common sense and/or morals to have a sound plan for handling nano tube waste/recycling, if that's even possible. We don't have the systems for properly dealing with the e-waste(and other) we have now. how bad's it gonna be when people are throwing nano tubes in landfills and rivers?

  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday August 18 2016, @08:28PM

    by butthurt (6141) on Thursday August 18 2016, @08:28PM (#389733) Journal

    Good point. I would imagine that vigourous heating in the presence of oxygen (as we do with waste diamonds) would turn them into harmless carbon dioxide.